Cleanest shop in town

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 34021, 10 December 1975, Page 6

Cleanest shop in town

There are window shoppers and bookshop browsers and people who tell the assistant they are “just looking” and even supermarket “shelf shoppers,” writes Janet Parr. But now Melbourne has a shop that sells nothing but soap where people can go and browse among the shelves because, say the

owners, people would really like a chance to get to know more about today’s bewildering multiplicity of cleaning products, what they can and cannot do, and which are best for the job. The term “soap” has actually been widened to include such things as detergents and bath polishers — in fact almost any product that can be used with water to keep the person and property clean. The shop’s policy is to keep prices down by making most of the products. The owners are cutting out expensive multiple packaging with uniform containers and handwritten labels that otherwise are the same for everything. Customers can also save by taking their own containers or paying a few refundable cents to borrow one from the shop. All the products are said to be bio-degradable except for one bath cleaner which contains a powdered rock. For people with sensitive skins there is soap that is just soap — no scent or additives. And one doubts if the owners really had a great deal of trouble finding a name for their shop. They call it “The Soapbox.”